SECRETARY GENERAL MARK RUTTE: All the capability targets we need going forward to keep [inaudible] people safe and protected. From this we will be [inaudible] and we already know we need to spend much, much more if we want to fulfill all these targets. And by the way, by doing that, we will also equalize in terms of spending between Canada and Europe and the United States.
There has been a total commitment by the US to NATO, but also this expectation that European and Canadian allies will step up spending and I'm pretty confident we will get there at the summit.
I also want to thank you and the president for what you are doing with Ukraine, driving the peace, engaging with President Putin and breaking the deadlock. And I think that is extremely important and also your valuable [ph] discussion [inaudible] So, thank you for being here. Thank you for your leadership and thank you for being such a staunch ally.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: I want to thank the Secretary General for doing a fantastic job, not an easy place to lead, a lot of divergent perspectives, but everybody shares an understanding and a commitment to our collective defense. So, well done. We appreciate you. Thank you for coming to visit the White House, for being a good friend of the United States.
I also want to thank our ambassador to NATO here, Matt Whitaker, who has done a phenomenal job representing President Trump here and American interests. But nobody has done more, I would argue, if you just look in plain speak at the commitments and the budgets of NATO countries, than President Trump to restore NATO as an alliance.
He did it in his first term saying you can't freeload, you need to spend, you need to be a part of that commitment. The European countries stepped up. Now we're seeing even more so with even higher targets that Ambassador Whitaker and Secretary General have set. So, we're talking about capabilities today and that's important.
You've got to know what you're spending it on and then that's going to be reflected, we believe -- the reason I'm here is to make sure every country in NATO understands every shoulder has to be to the plow. Every country has to contribute at that level of 5 percent as a recognition of the nature of the threat. It can't be about the flags that we love; it has to be about the formations that we have. It's that hard power that actually deters. It can't just be US capabilities.
So, the United States is proud to be here to stand with our allies, but our message is going to continue to be clear. It's deterrence and peace through strength, but it can't be reliance. It cannot and will not be reliance on America. In a world of a lot of threats where America is poised to help take on those threats -- I was just recently in the Indo-Pacific and we're very clear about those threats. We're prepared to step up. We need our allies to step up as well as we stand alongside them.
So, thank you for helping us have some of those hard conversations, those necessary conversations, and we're going to be talking to all of our allies, as the ambassador has been, that 5 percent is where we need to be considering the threats we face in the world today. And we'll have that conversation robustly and constructively. So, Secretary General, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you.